You can pick up headcrabs and houndeyes that start off dead. But you can no longer pick up headcrabs and houndeyes that you’ve killed.
I agree. I’d also like a gas mask for my HECU character.
Played the first 2 chapters…it’s very different than the original Mod…way better IMHO in every way!
If you are wondering if the $20 early access price is worth it I would say HELLS YES!
If Half Life 1 is my favorite game of all time, and this is a modernized remake of Half Life 1 that looks and plays better than the original…well, it looks like I have a new #1. Black Mesa.
When we did the first stream a couple of weeks ago, our character creation system was much more robust, allowing for customisation of colour and character accessories.
But it was buggy and had a lot of flaws, so we stripped it down for release. It is on the scope for our first major update, hopefully, and will be really expanded from what you see now - coloured viewmodels, gibs, accessories, the works.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the rocket launch screen. Kickass, and it’s honestly such an easy thing to miss.
By “rocket launch screen” do you mean the pop-out display on the RPG, or the satellite display at the end of OaR?
On a different note, I’ve noticed that some Health/Suit chargers give out one point more than they used to (51/76 as opposed to 50/75) and the player can hold 6 tripmines/satchels as opposed to 5. Is this intentional?
Looking awesome. New models and animations are amazing, and I love the new and improved MP5!
My only real qualm is with the multiplayer, as I think the longjump cooldown is too high and there is no way to silent walk (even crouching seems to be just as loud as running), which ruins some of the old hilarious ninja gameplay that used to happen sometimes
TF2 style economy (and hats) confirmed
Directed at community managers - Fantastic and incredible job the team have done. Everyone at Crowbar Collective should be truly proud.
Please find my list of bugs/known issues that can be implemented for further updates:
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“Newly binded buttons not showing up when changed at prompts”
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“Reload sounds do not sync with friendly NPC reload animations”
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“Animation of NPC security guard “dialling out for help” not scripting/performing at front desk”
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“Scripted animation of some npc’s not finishing when interrupted”
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“Size of flashlight is fine, but brightness needs to be turned up”
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“Changelog voice of HECU/marines now not voicing where they have been hit as was previous, additionally no death voice”
This is with three hours into gameplay. Will report any further bugs in this thread.
I liked everything, but there are some irks.
- The scientists’ arms do look very low-poly, and whenever they do their “Cross-their-arms” animation, it ends up looking really strange and awkward. Also, when they scratch their heads, the arms clip through the head.
- Ragdolls clipping through everything. Sorta breaks immersion.
- Everyone’s mentioned it, small flashlight.
- Colt Python (.357) uses shells from HL2’s .357. Both shells look different in the viewmodels.
- The MP5 mags are as large as the MP5 itself.
- SPAS 12’s stock is folded in the worldmodel, while in the viewmodel it wasn’t.
- 9mm shells are pretty large.
These are only very minor things, nothing serious.
I guess one more thing I have noticed is that the HECU AI may be a little TOO agressive. Agressive fights where they charge you are good, but I just cleared out the sandbags area in power up, and they literally all charged at me. Once I murdered them all, the area behind the sandbags, which is usually a bunker full of HECU, was completely empty and it just felt wrong
Haven’t had the chance to play it yet, but I gotta disagree on the HEV suit. Personally I love the new HEV suit model. :love: The old model just came off as kinda awkward and fat to me, the new one has much better proportions IMO. ^^
OK so I got to the end of OaR and watch the infamous “who is this guy freeman”?..loved it, much more realistic, BUT WHY in the world was it changed from the iconic “hes been killing my buddies” to “hes been killing marines” ??? now I think we all know that Gordon is the universal savior of the half-life franchise, and the HECU have always tough assholes of a ruthless military cleanup crew. After he said that , I was like “wow, I really don’t wanna have to kill these guys”(LOL) which ive NEVER had trouble doing with. It just struck very small and STRANG nerve but I just cant help to think that Gordon step down from savior, to domestic terrorist. The new voice actor did a good job of making them more human and maybe that’s why. I cant figure out why for the love of me that part in the writing was changed, It was never directly implied they’re Marines, just hinted. but ya just wanted to mention this, keep up the good work!!!
I disagree. I think owning up to what Gordon is doing makes the game’s story waay more interesting. When I heard him say “He’s killing Marines” I immediately felt that the scene was now 10X more important, and I felt kinda bad blowing them up. That’s what we’re supposed to feel, and I think it’s fantastic.
So, here’s my feedback. I’ve played the whole game now. I’d just like to note that while I have more to say about the negatives, as I feel it’s more useful to you all, this new version has been a VERY positive experience! It’s EXTREMELY well done. I’m just focusing on what I think you’d find more useful.
Good:
HEV BOOT UP! YESSSSSssssss
Extra dialogue is much appreciated. I especially like the lines guards give when you leave them behind. I feel like a lot of that is new. Very high attention to details.
Extra little bits of ambient music is excellent! The one thing I’ve always wished was that the HL series could have more music. So moody and fitting.
New weapons animations are great, and I love the new view models! The insanity of the new crowbar attack speed is so ridiculously awesome it had me laughing out loud. Don’t change it!! Running animations were a surprise as well. Fantastic!
New soldier combat AI is MUCH more interesting, and MUCH more fair. They sure love grenades now!
Vorts in their attack stance with angrier-sounding lines? Excellent.
Not-so-good:
Not a fan of how Gordon can now only sprint forward. Strafe-sprinting, while gamey, is kind of part of the package. I’m left-handed so my shooting stinks but I’m pretty good at juking in HL. With the new way sprinting works I had a bit of trouble dodging Vort attacks because I couldn’t duck in-and-out of cover as quickly. This is only ONE of TWO things I’ll directly ask you guys to please change back.
New flashlight is too underpowered. Black Mesa can be pretty dark visually, and having a weak flashlight was annoying. If this was done to compensate for the lack of a “battery bar”, TRUST me, I’d rather have a strong flashlight that I have to use sparingly than a weak one I can barely use. This the is other, and final thing I’ll directly ask you all to please change back.
This is more of an opinion, because other people have been praising it, but I really miss the old BM glock. I feel like the delay between non-automatic fires are too far apart. I tend to use the glock for picking off mines (of various types) and barnacles (once I get other weapons), and I could do so more quickly before. The automatic mode being less accurate makes this difficult. I understand this decision, though, and other people like it.
I miss the option to disable gibs. While ACTUALLY sort of realistic, I think gibs in-game are too cartoony for HL. I prefer ragdolls.
Vorts don’t really like to run around or chase me as much as they should. The sorta stand there waiting for me to come to them. I imagine this is something you’re working on, because you said that it’s been a recurring issue.
Some marines don’t notice I’m there when I’m REALLY close to them. I can give screens if you’d like.
New things I like with a slight downside:
…I’ve yet to see someone mention that the Office Complex theme is “back!” This is awesome because I love the song, but I feel it’s placement is a bit strange, though. I would have had it play when the chapter title shows and you see the electric puddle. The piano sting at the beginning fits this scene soo well if you ask me. Either way, it’s great to have the song in-game.
New HEV voice is INSANELY well done. Some people can’t tell the difference and that’s a tribute to how good it is. While I do hear the subtle difference (I’ve been playing a TON of HL2 over the past 2 years) and miss the older ones, the new one is good.
New HECU voices are much better… but less memorable. I guess that’s part of the price you pay for realism, though. I WILL say, however, that I haven’t noticed any of the alien names from the community project being said in-game. Can someone confirm if they are or aren’t actually in the game currently?
I disagree. If we were “supposed” to feel bad blowing them up, Valve would have made us feel bad in Half-Life. I’m pretty sure they wrote the HECU as sociopathic caricatures of real Marines so that we’d enjoy killing them. I like that Black Mesa makes them a little more human, and makes you feel maybe a little less gleeful, but this is going too far.
The original scene already gets across as much grey as it needs to, considering that by and large the Marines are monsters killing civilians with no qualms, while Gordon is just defending himself. There is some grey to the whole situation, but not a lot. Certainly not enough to justify that line. I honestly think that’s a terrible change, and kind of cheesy. The original line is way too classic to change.
I’m on the fence about that line. On one hand, it seems to fit because actual Marines do have that kind of camaraderie thing going on, and the change seems to reflect that. On the other hand, there really was nothing wrong about the original line, so I feel like the change was completely unnecessary. Also, nostalgia is enough to make me feel slightly uncomfortable about it. Plus, the HECU was never officially established to be the USMC (ignoring the issue of Op4’s ambiguous canon status).
As for the morality standpoint, I’m not sure how much that applies because the very next scripted sequence is the “monsters sure, but civilians?” line anyway. If anything, the changed line just adds to that.
I’ve played halfway through Surface Tension, and the improvements are definitely noticeable and welcome! A lot of what I loved was already covered in the previous posts, but I feel like I should bring up weapon and enemy balancing:
Weapons:
-Really dig the magnum and shotgun nerf. In the mod the shotgun was incredibly accurate and was viable even at midrange, and there was too much reliance on the magnum.
-The new MP5 is incredible. It might be a tad bit too accurate, but the recoil seems to compensate, especially on multiplayer.
-Return of the secondary pistol firing mode was nice, and the reduction of the fire rate for the primary fire. The fact that you could empty an entire clip in 2 seconds in the mod made it a tad bit too OP, so this is good.
-The slower RPG rockets are cool, but I think it’s bugged; when fighting the Apache on the cliffside the laser guided rockets stubbornly refused to hit the chopper even when my crosshair was right on it.
-Introducing the snarks earlier was nice, especially given how I hardly used them in the mod.
Enemies:
-I like how the vorts can withstand 2 magnum rounds now, but their shock attack is still too weak. It barely drains suit energy, and given how their attack speed is now akin to HL1’s, they are more of a nuisance than anything. They also have a tendency to freeze in place after attacking once, but I understand this is being looked at.
-Same thing with the bullsquid; it can tank more now (which is great) but its acid spit still doesn’t deal a lot of damage.
-The Blast Pit tentacles still only respond to grenade/satchel if they detonate on another floor aside from theirs. If the explosion happens on the same floor, two tentacles investigate but the third doesn’t. And for the final run back to the launch room, I understand that the intention was for the player to quickly rush back up, but for stealthier players it might be confusing instead, what with Blast Pit 3 playing. It’s a problem since the guards initially inform you that the stealthy approach was more desirable; the unpredictability of the tentacle AI is more confusing than anything.
-The HECU AI is definitely improved; they no longer have laser accuracy and actually move around a lot more so they aren’t stationary turrets. There are still some instances where they all kamikaze rush you though, like at the generator in Power Up and right when you get outside from the Questionable Ethics lobby. Additionally, sometimes they’d derp out and just stand there for a second or two staring at me as I unload my MP5 into them.
-The Apache is still kind of “meh” to fight. There isn’t a whole lot of cover that you can move to without getting peppered by its machine guns. Right now it seems to be a matter of popping down and up from the rocks or crates in the cave and firing an RPG, then rinse and repeat. The buggy RPG rockets may have something to do with this. I do like how it takes less shots to down it now though.
-Alien grunts, like the HECU, seem to be unaware of my presence, making them easy to pick off and they always run into walls.
Nitpicky stuff/possible bugs?
-The new HECU voices are great, but they hardly talk. They don’t have death sounds, and compared to the mod version they just generally don’t vocalize as much, either in combat or idle.
-One of the HECU soldiers in the cargo area right before the elevator up to the surface in We’ve Got Hostiles has a shotgun. I always liked the placement of the shotgun in the security office right after that battle instead, as it was like a reward for getting through the level.
-The running animation for the grenade is buggy; it starts after a second or so of sprinting instead of right away, and continues after sprinting stops.
-The pickup animation for the MP5 has no sound.
Oh. My. Good. Lord.
Finally had a chance to pick up steam wallet funds today, and I’ve gotten to the start of Blast Pit.
This is almost like the transition between Half-Life and the mod release. I’m really digging the revised weapon mechanics, animations, models, and sounds, loving the re-recorded and expanded dialog, and having a great time soaking in all the newly redone props.
There are a few issues, as to be expected from an early access release on a new engine version, and I’ll be reporting them as they come, but overall this is just, really, really awesome. Looking forward to taking multiplayer for a spin on the weekend and seeing how the rest of the game goes.
Congrats guys, ya did it!
Another thing I really like is how the soldiers tend to flee for cover when hit. I’m not sure if this is new behavior at all, but it’s nice. It also makes suppressive fire while moving feel like an actual option.
Hey guys. Since I already gave enaugh feedback about the Multiplayer of Black Mesa, I will now share my thoughts about the singleplayer mode 
I am currently at the point where I got the crossbow and passed the Ichy. I have to say that I really enjoyed the singleplayer a lot so far.
Things I liked:
- The HECU voices and their A.I. are way better than in the mod, really enjoyable
- The MP5 is very well balanced for singleplayer… I really like it. (I’m not sure if I like the recoil for Multiplayer though)
- The new animations on weapons (especially the animations for the first pickoff, the sprint- and idle-animations) are freaking great. I love them.
- More detail and more believable design all the way… The game really does feel like a game. When I played the mod version I sometimes thought “omg this is cheap”… The steam version is a huge improvement. Just great.
- The flashlight
There are few minor complaints I have…:
- Sometimes I feel like most HECUs have too few hp… or they just die quickly. Not sure if you have it already in BM but in half-life 1 you deal more damage by shooting on bodyparts that aren’t armored. Maybe add “armored hitboxes” to the HECU (If you have them already, maybe think about buffing them)
- There are still no leeches
- The crossbow can’t shoot underwater (while zoomed)
- Many jumping puzzles that where in the original HL aren’t present in Black Mesa. Personally I miss them a lot… Not having them removes gameplay variety from the game… In HL1 there were a lot of places were you had to climb over things… Sometimes you had to push boxes to some helpful place… etc. Black Mesa is more about shooting. It’s cool, but I think it’s more enjoyable if there are quiet moments with ability practise from time to time. But I agree that jumping with HL2 movement isn’t much fun. I hope a real fix for the jumpheight will get implemented when the new playeranimations (longjump-animation etc…) are done (correct me if I’m wrong but I think I read somewhere on the forums that you are planning to make your own playeranimations. When talking about new playeranimations I would like to make a suggestion quick: Please make the players stance more upright. This will be more HL1-style and it will make it easier to aim on the enemies head in multiplayer.).
- In the “Blast Pit”-control room where you see the Tentacle-animation for me the lightning looked very yellow… also I think it would be a nice Idea to increase the shadow-resolution in that room (so railings would draw nice shadows on walls)
- Before you are about to perform the experiment, you come to a room where somebody tells you “They are waiting for you gordon… In the testchamberrr”… I really like that speech but his voice is rather unfitting in BM.
- Sometimes when you are walking through Black Mesa, there is some kind of loudspeaker announcer (you can find the sounds under valve/sound/vox in original Half-Life 1). I think these sounds were really epic in original Half-Life and I think they sound rather unstatisfying in Black Mesa. They could be improved.)
- In office complex there is a secret office (before you enter the freezer-area) that you can enter via a vent. I think you should place a shotgun or some other early weapon there to reward the players that find that secret room. I like secrets in general and I think it’s always nice to get some slight advantage by searching and finding secrets in maps.
- When you hit crates with your crowbar, most of them seem very lightweight.
Don’t get irritated by all this text under my cons… I really enjoyed the game so far. Great job!
Edit:
I played on and progressed up to the sniper-scene now…
I want to list some more things I’ve noticed:
- Soldiers are still very precise over long range and they notice you very quickly… even if it’s very dusty
- The helicopter at the RPG-scene is very tanky, you don’t have much cover to hide, it shoots very long salves and moves sidewards sometimes (dodges your rockets)… All in all I think it’s a very hard part of the game. Maybe it could need some change… Maybe just more cover. Or give the helicopter less hp. Or make it shoot shorter salves.
- Assasins are also very hard compared to other marines (I would change them a bit… Change the A.I. to make Assasins take cover from explosives (they did this in HL1, too) and reduce their damage or health slightly.)
- I think the ammolimit for the MP5-grenades should get increased. I always end up saving up my grenades because I can carry only so very few. So I end up never using them. I would suggest to increase it up to 5 to see how it works out. MP5 grenades were often used in HL1 singleplayer and multiplayer and I think this low ammolimit is a very huge nerf that should not stay.
I love the release, real only problem is the lag spikes and how some models like the bullet casings are really bad…